Business and Technical English

LESSON 9

THE SEVEN C’S OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION II

Outline
In this lesson, you will learn the following seven C’s of effective communication:
• Consideration
Ways to secure consideration are:
o Focus on ‘you’ Instead of ‘I’ or ‘we’.
o Show audience benefit or interest in the receiver.
o Emphasize positive, pleasant facts.
• Concreteness
Guidelines to compose concrete & convincing messages:
o Use specific facts and figures.
o Put action in your verbs.
o Choose vivid, image-building words.

Consideration
Consideration means preparing every message with the message receiver in mind. Consideration
is very important in effective communication. It shows that you understand your audience, which
goes a long way to get your desired result. Consideration simply means you show empathy in
your communication style. Along with understanding your audience, you should also:
• Not lose your temper
• Not accuse
• Not charge them without facts

In business communication, there are three specific ways to indicate consideration:

• Focus on ‘you’ Instead of ‘I’ or ‘we’.
• Show audience benefit or interest in the receiver.
• Emphasize positive & pleasant facts.

1. Focus on ‘you’ Instead of ‘I’ or ‘we’

To create considerate, audience-oriented messages, focus on how message receivers will benefit,
what they will receive, and what they want or need to know. In some cases this can be
accomplished by emphasis; you may downplay your own feelings to make a point.

Example
We-attitude: I am delighted to announce that we have extended our office hours to make
shopping more convenient.
You-attitude: You will be able to shop evenings with the extended office hours.
The use of ‘you’ in negative situations can be avoided by employing passive voice, making the
receiver part of the group.

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2. Show audience benefit or interest in the receiver

Readers may react positively when benefits are shown to them. Whenever possible and true,
show your receivers will benefit from whatever the message asks or announces. Benefits must
meet the recipient's needs, address their concerns, or offer them rewards.

3. Emphasize positive and pleasant facts

Another way to show consideration is to emphasize pleasant and positive facts. This means
stressing what can be done instead of what cannot be done. Also, you must focus on words your
recipient considers favorable.

Example
In the following opening of a letter, the negative words you would rather not have at all are
underlined.

We regret that, since you closed your account, your name is missing from our long list of
satisfied customers. We sincerely hope that due to the best efforts of our fine staff, there were no
occasions on which you felt we failed to serve you properly.

Concreteness
Communicating concretely means being specific, definite, and vivid rather than vague and
general. Often it means using denotative (direct, explicit, often dictionary-based) rather than
connotative words.

The benefits to business professionals of using concrete facts and figures are:
Your receivers know exactly what is desired. When you supply specifics for the reader, you
increase the likelihood that your message will be interpreted the way you intended. The
following guidelines will help you compose concrete and convincing messages.

• Use specific facts and figures.

• Put action in your verbs.
• Choose vivid, image-building words.

1. Use Specific Facts and Figures

Whenever possible, use an exact, precise statement or a figure in place of a general word to make
your message more concrete. Consider the following example:

Vague, General & Indefinite: Student GMAT scores are higher.

Concrete & Precise: In 1996, the GMAT scores averaged 600; by 1117 they had risen to 610.

2. Put Action in Your Verbs

Verbs can activate other words and help make your sentences alive or vigorous. To have
dynamic sentences:

• Use active rather than passive verbs.

• Put action in your verbs.

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a. Use Active Rather than Passive Verbs

Active verbs help make your sentences more specific, personal, concise, and emphatic.

Specific: "The dean decided" is more explicit than "A decision has been made."
Personal: "You will note" is both personal and specific; "It will be noted" is impersonal."
Concise: The passive voice requires more words and thus slows both writing and reading.
Compare "Figures show" with "It is shown by figures."
Emphatic: Passive verbs dull action. Compare "The students held a contest" with "A contest
was held by the students."

Sometimes, however, you may prefer the passive voice instead of the active, as in the
following situations:

• When you want to avoid personal, blunt accusations or comments

Use Passive voice instead of active voice when you want to avoid personal blunt accusations:

‘The October check was not included’ is more tactful than ‘you failed to include....’
‘Attendance at the meeting is required.’ is less hard than ‘You must attend…’

• When you want to stress the object of the action

"You are invited." is better than "We invite you."

• When the doer is not important in the sentence

In "Three announcements were made before the meeting started," the emphasis is on the
announcements, not on who gave them.

b. Put Action in Verbs, Not in Nouns

Seven verbs—be, give, have, hold, make, put, and take—(in any tense) might be designated as
"deadly" when the action they introduce is hidden in a "quiet noun". The examples given below
show how each deadly verb with the noun and preposition (all underlined) can be changed to an
action verb that shortens the sentence.

Weak: Action hiding in a "Quiet" Noun

• The function of this office is the collection of payments and the compilation of
statements.
• Professor H. will give consideration to the report.

Improved: Action in the Verb

• This office collects payments and compiles statements.

• Professor H. will consider the report.

3. Choose vivid and image-building words

You can make your message forceful, vivid, and specific by using comparisons, sensory appeals,
figurative language, concrete nouns, and well-chosen adjectives.

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Comparisons
Bland Image: This is a long letter.
More Vivid Image: This letter is three times as long as you said it would be.

Figurative Language
Literal: Her work in groups was exemplary.
More vivid & Figurative: She could be called the spark plug of the group.

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